The Muslim Council of Montreal (MCM) is an umbrella organization representing number of Muslim institutions in the Montreal region.

Muslim Council of Montreal dismayed by incident of racial profiling

Montreal, Quebec, February 3rd, 2012- The Muslim Council of Montreal (MCM) expressed its
concern over the racial profiling of members of the Montreal Muslim community.

Mr. Saad Allami was arrested, detained and
accused of being a terrorist in January 2011, after giving a pep talk to his
fellow employees at a telecommunications firm encouraging them to “blow away”
the competition at a convention they were attending.

“Mr.
Allami’s statements, when considered in the context of which they were given,
were nothing to draw such alarm or suspicion,” stated Salam Elmenyawi,
president of MCM. “It is clear that his arrest was the result of racial
profiling and a knee-jerk reaction to label him as a terror suspect simply due
to his religious background. Had these same comments been uttered by someone of
a different background, the police would not have rushed to arrest and label
him/her without any additional evidence or investigation.”

MCM
urges the Quebec provincial police department to exercise increased caution
before rushing to judgement and action in the future and to show greater regard
for respecting the rights of others and avoiding victimizing entire segments of
people within our society.

The Muslim Council of Montreal (MCM) is an umbrella
organization representing a number of Islamic institutions in the Montreal
region. There are over 275,000 Muslims in Montreal, about 1,200,000 in Canada
and 1.9 billion worldwide.